- Somalia: Armed clashes erupt in capital ahead of a planned anti-regime demonstration
Source: ABC News
“Supporters of opposition political figures and state security forces continued to clash in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Thursday after fighting broke out Wednesday evening ahead of a planned anti-government demonstration. No official casualty figures were immediately available from the violence that prompted calls for restraint from the United Nations and the United States as the government and opposition traded blame for the violence. Residents reported heavy gunfire and explosions as fighting broke out in several neighborhoods Wednesday. … Opposition figures say the rally planned for Thursday was intended to protest what they call constitutional violations and efforts by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to extend his tenure. The government has rejected those allegations.” (06/04/26)
- ME: Former primary rival resurfaces to challenge scandal-plagued Graham Platner in US Senate race
Source: Fox News
“Scandal-plagued democratic socialist Graham Platner’s continued controversies have led his former primary rival to speak out and remind Mainers that she remains on the ballot despite having suspended her campaign. Platner has been hit with one controversy after another, though he remains the heavy favorite heading into next Tuesday’s primary contest, as his only active opponent, David Costello, has failed to gain traction. But Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign for Senate earlier this year, dropped a potential bombshell in comments to a Lewiston Sun-Journal columnist by suggesting Democrats could still vote for her in their effort to unseat 30-year incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, New England’s last remaining federal Republican officeholder.” (06/03/26)
- US Heimatschutz Cancels Most Pending Noem-Era Contracts After Review
Source: US News & World Report
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is canceling most pending contracts initiated under ousted Secretary Kristi Noem, the current secretary said on Wednesday, a move that follows congressional scrutiny and an internal watchdog review of her contracting practices. During a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Secretary Markwayne Mullin also said he would restore longer training for federal immigration officers, reversing a Noem-era decision that shortened training during a hiring surge and drew bipartisan concerns in Congress about whether recruits were adequately prepared. Mullin faced questions from a top Democrat about what steps he had taken to roll back Noem-era contracts. ‘We are looking at the contracts that weren’t already signed, and we did go through and cancel most of those,’ Mullin said. The move is part of a broader effort by Mullin to unwind contracting practices under Noem that drew bipartisan criticism.” (06/03/26)
- CA: Monterey Park votes to permanently ban data centers
Source: SFGate
“Monterey Park voters made history Tuesday by passing the first permanent ban on data centers nationwide. Voters are on track to overwhelmingly approve the ban, with 86% in favor according to the latest ballot count, leading organizers to claim victory (the official results won’t be certified until July 10). Where other jurisdictions have passed temporary measures to curb the controversial development of these massive server farms, Monterey Park voters’ decision in this election will keep developers at bay unless voters want to revisit the decision in a future election.” (06/03/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/monterey-park-data-center-ban-22290345.php
- North Korea: Regime unveils nuclear fuel plant as Kim vows “exponential” boost to deterrent
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“North Korea on Thursday unveiled a new facility believed to produce fuel for nuclear weapons, with leader Kim Jong Un pledging to expand the country’s nuclear forces ‘at an exponential rate.’ Photos suggested the site may be a uranium enrichment facility. Kim has repeatedly cited US-led military threats as underpinning the need for his country to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal.” (06/03/26)
- Israeli regime agrees to Lebanon “ceasefire,” says it will keep firing
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military will continue its ground operations in southern Lebanon, hours after Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a US-backed ceasefire to end hostilities. … ‘The IDF will, at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations, remain in the security zone in Lebanon up to the yellow line – including in the Beaufort area – and without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure on the ground,’ he said in a statement. … The IDF also issued a warning this morning saying fighting will continue in southern Lebanon as it urged people to ‘refrain from heading south of the Zahrani River.’ Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported several people were wounded in Israeli strikes in the southern Tyre and Nabatieh areas, which have seen repeated attacks in recent weeks.” (06/04/26)
- US House performatively votes to end already illegal Iran war
Source: USA Today
“In a severe political blow to President Donald Trump, the House of Representatives voted for the first time on Wednesday, June 3, to end the war in Iran. The 215-208 vote, which was mostly symbolic, marked a new period of congressional unease with the conflict in the Middle East amid an impasse in peace negotiations. Strikes in the region have continued in recent days despite the White House’s assertion to lawmakers that hostilities have ended. Four Republicans joined with Democrats to support a resolution asserting the legislative branch’s war authority and blocking further hostilities in the region. It came just two weeks after the Senate advanced a similar measure.” [editor’s note: The war was illegal the instant Trump started it without the required constitutional declaration. These theatrics are no substitute for impeachment and removal – TLK] (06/03/26)
- Illegal Tariffs, Round 3
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Another failing war Trump won’t end.” (06/04/26)
- Copernicus at 500
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“Famed for his contributions to the hard sciences—most notably his theory of heliocentricity—the sixteenth-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was also an acute analyst of monetary policy. To that end, Ralph Benko has done us all a great service with this new edition of Copernicus’s classic, if neglected, treatise On the Minting of Money. Indeed, its lessons, though nearly five centuries old, remain evergreen.” (06/04/26)
- Why Stone-Faced Fascists Keep Getting Antiquity Wrong
Source: The Bulwark
by Bret Devereaux“Homer is back in the discourse on account of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, The Odyssey. The latest controversy began with Elon Musk, among others, protesting the supposed inaccuracy of casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, a fictional character, who among other fantastic elements is the daughter of the god Zeus and was laid as an egg by her human mother. … the fight over Homer represents just another skirmish in the campaign mounted by bigoted very-online right-wing self-described ‘chuds’ to claim Greek and Roman culture for their own fascist, or at least fascist-adjacent, ideology, which demands the exclusion of minorities, women, and LGBTQ people.” (06/04/26)
- There Is No Reprieve in the Fed’s War on Savings
Source: Cobden Centre
by Max Rangeley“There is a particular kind of financial wisdom that used to be passed down at kitchen tables. A grandparent, someone who remembered harder times, would explain that the first obligation of a responsible person was to spend less than they earned, put something away, and let patience do its quiet work. The savings account was not a sophisticated instrument. It was a vessel for deferred consumption—a way of translating present discipline into future security. The interest it paid was modest, but it moved in the same direction over time. That world has not merely changed. It has been, in a precise and largely unacknowledged sense, inverted.” (06/04/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/06/there-is-no-reprieve-in-the-feds-war-on-savings/
- As we approach July 4, the capital is, fittingly, a mess
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes“Just a month out from America’s celebration of its 250th birthday, the national capital is a mess. And I’m talking about the sites central to the pilgrimages that millions of Americans make each year to Washington, especially the White House. The once-verdant park remains a construction site, with makeshift fencing only partly obscuring the vast scar that was once the East Wing and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. Cranes sway in place of the felled trees, to build President Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom despite court orders and overwhelming public opinion against it. The South Lawn has been replaced with a gargantuan circus-tent-like arena for Ultimate Fighting Championship cage matches and a Trump-picked audience of thousands. Yes, cage matches. To mark not the nation’s birthday but the president’s 80th on June 14. Because it’s all about Trump.” (06/04/26)
- NATO Propagandists Again Proclaim That Ukraine Is on the Verge of Winning the War
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter“NATO partisans in both Europe and the United States are perpetual optimists about Ukraine’s prospective fortunes in its war against Russia. Lately, there has been yet another inundation of such accounts in Western news media outlets. Many of them emphasize that Moscow’s latest military offensive against Ukrainian ground forces has come to a halt with inconclusive results. The lack of a decisive breakthrough, members of Ukraine’s fan club contend, means that Russian president Vladimir Putin has again failed in his quest to conquer Eastern Europe’s resilient ‘democratic’ frontline state. That version of recent developments contains just enough truth to gain credibility among gullible opinion shapers and political leaders in the United States and in most other NATO countries.” (06/04/26)
- Does MAGA Actually Believe Their Voter Fraud Conspiracy Theories?
Source: Washington Monthly
by David Atkins“It sounds too weird to be true, but in the Trump era, frequently, the dumbest explanation is often the right one.” (06/04/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/06/04/maga-believe-voter-fraud-conspiracy/
- Economic Calculation and a Southern California Beach Girl
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson“When the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 and 1991, followers of the Austrian School of Economics knew that socialism’s lack of a coherent method of economic calculation certainly led to the demise of these regimes. Economists had known for years of the chronic shortages, shoddy workmanship, and all of the other negative aspects of economic life in those countries and why no one who understood socialism was surprised at these results.” (06/04/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/economic-calculation-and-southern-california-beach-girl
- The Men Defending Graham Platner In All The Wrong Ways
Source: Liberal Currents
by Alan Elrod“You cannot defeat misogyny by behaving like a misogynist.” (06/04/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-men-defending-graham-platner-in-all-the-wrong-ways/
- If This Is Winning, America Can’t Afford Much More of It
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead“We are losing ground economically. We are losing credibility abroad. We are losing tourists, workers, stability, trust, constitutional guardrails, and whatever remained of the illusion that the government answers to ‘we the people.’ The tourism economy is taking a hit, with international visitors increasingly reluctant to come to the United States. Even migration—the lifeblood of America’s economic growth, innovation, labor force and national renewal—is now moving in the wrong direction. Fewer people are coming in, more Americans are leaving, and by some estimates the country has already crossed into negative net migration. That is not the mark of a nation ‘winning.’ It is the mark of a nation people are increasingly choosing to escape.” (06/03/26)
- The “rich” aren’t the problem
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“There’s a lot of hostility toward ‘the rich.’ Especially billionaires. The hostility is misplaced. The real divide is not ‘the rich’ versus ‘everyone else.’ It is those who seek to rule, versus everyone they seek to rule.” (06/03/26)
- The Myth of a Permanently Poor Underclass
Source: The Daily Economy
by Vance Ginn“The bottom income quintile is not a static social class but a temporary snapshot of lives in motion. Most Americans do not remain poor for life, and removing policy barriers can help more people move up.” (06/04/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-myth-of-a-permanently-poor-class/
- Trump’s Immunity Deal Stinks Even More Than His Blatantly Corrupt “Anti-Weaponization Fund”
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“An addendum to the president’s ‘settlement’ of his lawsuit against the IRS shields him and his family from liability for any federal offenses they committed prior to May 19.” (06/03/26)
- An interesting thought about RINOs
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“To be a RINO is a frequent accusation in today’s atmosphere, generally by those GOP types who claim to be ‘true conservatives.’ Or ‘real conservatives.’ Or ‘classical conservatives.’ Or even Trumpistas and MAGA types.” (06/03/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/06/03/an-interesting-thought-about-rinos/
- I Love SpaceX But Hate Its Proposed IPO
Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer“I have been recuperating from some health issues and have not been writing much, but I really don’t want to miss out on putting my oar in the water prior to the SpaceX IPO. As background, I love to watch what SpaceX is doing in launch and believe they have made a huge contribution to the world in doing so. As a former operator of hundreds of wilderness campgrounds, Starlink was the greatest single new technology for our business in 20 years. But you don’t automatically get your way with stock valuations just because what you do is cool and useful — there has to be some prospect of making back the investment.” (06/03/26)
https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2026/06/i-love-spacex-but-hate-its-proposed-ipo.html
- The Murder of Henry Nowak and the Politics of Certainty
Source: Quillette
by Andrew Fox“Henry Nowak should first be remembered as an eighteen-year-old who had moved to Southampton to begin adult life. He was murdered as he walked back to his student accommodation, and those who loved him have been sentenced to a life of grief. That is where any serious discussion of the case must begin. … Nowak’s grieving family asked the country not to use his death ‘to create further division, hatred or tension.’ Their request was unusually and heartbreakingly dignified, given what they have endured. But it was immediately ignored.” (06/03/26)
- A Perfect Fit?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“[Graham Platner] presents himself as a working-class guy, though he comes from a wealthy family that placed him in a $75,000 a year prep school. He is an oyster farmer, but most of his income derives from disability payments. He told reporters that he bought his home with a VA loan, but his father loaned him the money. … Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist, [says] ‘We desperately need somebody like him here in the U.S. Senate.’ Graham Platner should fit right in.” (06/03/26)
- North Carolina’s HB 1173 Risks Repeating California’s Failures
Source: Independent Institute
by Sam Jenson“In December 2025, just days before Christmas, 13-year-old Jaleeyah Tune was murdered in Goldsboro, North Carolina. According to prosecutors, Jaleeyah was ambushed by three teens with alleged gang ties. In the aftermath of this tragedy, new legislation, House Bill 1173, has advanced in North Carolina. This new bill, known as ‘Jaleeyah’s Law,’ would enhance criminal penalties for gang-related activity. Lawmakers are attempting to prevent tragedies of this kind in the future, but such laws can prove slippery slopes. It cannot be overstated how tragic the loss of Jaleeyah Tune is, but emotionally charged lawmaking has already led to overcriminalization, wrongful gang designations, and erosion of due process before.” (06/03/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/03/north-carolina-hb-1173/
- Iranians Had a Better Shot of Toppling Their Monstrous Regime Before the War
Source: The UnPopulist
by Pouya Nikmand“{The country’s rulers have become more entrenched and brutal, turning the glimmer of hope during the protests into fear and despair.” (06/03/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/iranians-had-a-better-shot-of-toppling
- Alliances
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“My previous three posts dealt with the possibility of an alliance between libertarians and Abundance liberals. Neither is a political party, a nation, even an organization; in what sense can they ally? One could imagine a political alliance in which leading members of both groups advise their followers to vote for the same candidate or ballot measure, but that is not what I am talking about. What I am imagining is for members of both groups to treat each other as part of the same intellectual community, read, listen to, comment on and think about each other’s writing, teach and learn from each other, perhaps coauthor books or articles. For that to happen productively there have to be issues on which the participants in the conversation believe that their views could be improved by ideas from the other side.” (06/03/26)
- US-Israel integration is far from “America First”
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Joe Kent“We cannot outsource components of our national security to nations that do not share our interests and that is exactly what this proposed scheme would do.” (06/03/26)
- Winery Sues Santa Barbara Over Unconstitutional Mandate
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mike Brownfield“For more than two decades, Flying Goat founders Norm Yost and Kate Griffith have built their family-owned winery into one of the region’s most innovative and celebrated producers—pursuing their own vision of what their winery should be along the way. But last year, county officials and the leaders of the local vintners’ association decided that they know what’s best for Flying Goat. In February 2025, the board created a wine ‘Business Improvement District,’ or Wine BID, requiring all local wineries to pay a 1% assessment on sales to fund regional marketing efforts. The ordinance also forces wineries to become members of the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association, which controls how the money is spent. … The problem is, Norm and Kate don’t want anything to do with the Wine BID because they don’t agree with its marketing or lobbying activities — including paying for overseas trips for its leaders.” (06/03/26)
https://fee.org/articles/winery-sues-santa-barbara-over-unconstitutional-mandate/
- The freedom to question requires the duty to prove
Source: Students For Liberty
by Les Affranchis“There is a particular intellectual posture that has become distinctly fashionable at the edges of the liberty movement. It goes roughly like this: a public figure makes a contested empirical claim. Experts in the relevant field find the claim unsupported by the available evidence and say so. The figure, rather than producing better evidence, reframes the disagreement as persecution and blames ‘the establishment’ for it. Sympathetic bystanders, some of them part of the pro-liberty movement, often rally to the outsiders’ defense, not because they sincerely agree with the underlying evidence, but because they see an outsider being criticized ‘by the establishment.’ The liberty tradition, they argue, must side with the outsider, regardless of evidence. Such reasoning is unpersuasive and it may come at a reputational cost for the pro-liberty movement.” (06/03/26)
https://studentsforliberty.org/blog/the-freedom-to-question-requires-the-duty-to-prove/
- Conservatives Miss the Point on Marijuana
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“[T]he only real argument for the legalization of marijuana is freedom. It doesn’t matter if marijuana has no medical benefits and that advocates of the legalization of medical marijuana just want to get high. Just like it doesn’t matter if using marijuana for recreational purposes is addictive, harmful, risky, unhealthy, immoral, sinful, or dangerous. It is not the business of government at any level to concern itself in any way with the eating, drinking, and smoking habits of Americans. It is not the business of the American Enterprise Institute or any other conservative think tank. It is not the business of Naomi Schaefer Riley or any other nanny-state, conservative drug warrior.” (06/03/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/conservatives-miss-the-point-on-marijuana/
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/03/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“House Passes Iran War Powers Resolution, IDF Chief: No Ceasefire in Lebanon, and More.” (06/03/26)
- Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael, 06/03/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
“Israel’s ‘Nuclear Ambiguity’ Under Fire in Congress: The Bigger Picture w/ Geoffrey Aronson.” (06/03/26)
- The Briefing Podcast with Michael Waldman, 06/03/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Trump’s Supreme Court Showdown — and Other Cases to Watch (with Tom Wolf and Wilfred Codrington).” (06/03/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 06/03/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump Meeting in Situation Room to Decide on Iran Deal.” (06/03/26)
- Make It Make Sense, 06/03/26
Source: Washington Post
“Did Trump win the late-night comedy battle?” (06/03/26)
- Kibbe on Liberty, episode 389
Source: Free the People
“It’s Time to Legalize Home Distilling | Guest: Robert Alt.” (06/03/26)
- NPR Politics Podcast, 06/03/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Why did Governor Polis release election denier Tina Peters?” (06/03/26)
- Sal and Mark, episode 5
Source: Free Talk Live
“Sal and Mark are back with a special episode recorded live at BCH Bliss 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia — the premier Bitcoin Cash conference. We’ve put together a montage of the best interviews from the event.” (06/03/26)
- Political Theater, 06/03/26
Source: Roll Call
“You can’t always get what you want, politics edition.” (06/03/26)
https://chrt.fm/track/D3F8DG/traffic.megaphone.fm/FISCAL7679783675.mp3
- The Tom Woods Show, episode 2766
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Does Israel ‘Drag America into War?’ Scott Horton Explains.” (06/03/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2766-does-israel-drag-america-into-war-scott-horton-explains/
- The Political Orphanage
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Privacy Through a Cop’s Eyes.” (06/03/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/privacy-through-a-cops-eyes